Portsmouth - Amsterdam. No flying.

[Mark.]

So say for a change a little adventure was needed. Flying is easy and dull so we will drive it.
Got some alternatives, drive to the tunnel, overnight Friday, get to Amsterdam Saturday AM, do return on Sunday (seems tiring)
Drive to Harwich Friday evening. Overnight ferry to Hook of Holland, Amsterdam for Breakfast. Return on mid afternoon ferry Sunday, back in time for a sleep before work Monday (seems most logical)

Euro tunnel seems a bit of a hash, have to go to Brussels then change on to local transport.

So what options have I missed?

[nw28840]

Not sure i understand the overnight Tunnel bit , you can only take your car over to Calais on the Channel Tunnel and the whole journey takes 35 minutes. Passenger service only to Belgium (no vehicles).

Get up early on Saturday , catch the 6-7am Channel Tunnel, 4 hour drive the other side and be in Amsterdam for lunchtime. Nice day/night in Amsterdam , then Sunday head to Zandvoort for any racing
(well this is Pistonheads after all) ? or maybe Scheveningen for lunch on the coast or start your journey back to Calais and stop in Brugge (Bruges, Belgium) for lunch and a walk around.

Harwich to Hoek ferry is OK , quite expensive though and you will have spent most of your weekend on a boat.

[Puggit]

The obvious missed items are overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre and drive! Not direct, but very easy start.

[Bluebarge]

Sounds quite pointless TBH. You will spend most of your weekend in a ferry or on a motorway. Continental motorways are no more interesting than UK ones. Car parking in Amsterdam is not exactly plentiful, unless you have an Amphicar.

This is precisely the sort of trip (short, city to city, no good driving roads between the two) where flying makes sense.

[Shay HTFC]

Just drive to Dover, hop on a ferry (or the train) and then drive to Amsterdam. Only takes 4 hours from Calais.
Take some time out in Ghent, Antwerp, maybe the Hague etc. Easy.

[Mark.]

nw28840 said:

Not sure i understand the overnight Tunnel bit

Get the last train out and drive 'overnight' to Amsterdam.

Puggit said:

The obvious missed items are overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre and drive! Not direct, but very easy start.

Obvious indeed Sir, but I think the cost of the Portsmouth ferries makes this more expensive than actually driving to Harwich first - but I'll check.

Bluebarge said:

Sounds quite pointless TBH. You will spend most of your weekend in a ferry or on a motorway. Continental motorways are no more interesting than UK ones. Car parking in Amsterdam is not exactly plentiful, unless you have an Amphicar.

This is precisely the sort of trip (short, city to city, no good driving roads between the two) where flying makes sense.

Well, not pointless I'd say. Just something different. Could always spend the weekend doing pointless things at home instead. Any way - it's nice to go somewhere different for lunch. And depending on vehicle choice, any road can be fun!
Been recommended a hotel, that I forget it's name currently but I understand it has parking.

Shay HTFC said:

Just drive to Dover, hop on a ferry (or the train) and then drive to Amsterdam. Only takes 4 hours from Calais.
Take some time out in Ghent, Antwerp, maybe the Hague etc. Easy.

This is another to investigate - although the plan will be to get to Amsterdam quickly - partly because we plan to spend some time with our daughter who will be there at the same time

Cheers so far chaps!

[sjg]

Eurostar is easy, I've done it a couple of times - goes into Brussels, walk 50m or so to the other side of the station and get on a Thalys express. Can even buy the ticket in one go via Eurostar. Comfortably under 5 hours from London and you arrive at the Centraal station in Amsterdam.

If you must drive then a cross-channel ferry/tunnel then driving the rest makes more sense to me. But parking in the centre of Amsterdam is horrifically expensive so you're likely to be using the park & ride (8 euros a day to park) so you end up using public transport anyway.

If you're doing the overnight ferry (friends go back and forth to Rotterdam a lot and use it all the time) you may be better off dumping the car in Harwich and just getting a train at the other end - train station is next to the ferry terminal and it's only 1h15 into Amsterdam from there.

[Mosman]

sjg said:

But parking in the centre of Amsterdam is horrifically expensive

Yes it is... some years ago our car got clamped in Amsterdam, it was cheaper to leave it clamped and pay the fine than to pay for parking at the hotel!!

[Mark.]

Hotel we are looking at has a public car park pretty much next door, €40 or something a day with 25% hotel discount to come off that.
Seems reasonable, I paid about the same in Paris a while back - and they do car parks much better than us. Well lit, wide bays, and the Paris one even played classical music at my car.

[vetrof]

Mark. said:

Euro tunnel seems a bit of a hash, have to go to Brussels then change on to local transport.

This is easy. Get off one train at Bruxelles Midi walk to a different platform (10 min max) catch train to Amsterdam, can be done in less than 5 hours.

[Mark.]

vetrof said:

This is easy. Get off one train at Bruxelles Midi walk to a different platform (10 min max) catch train to Amsterdam, can be done in less than 5 hours.

Agreed, it does seem easy, and when the Eurostar went out of Waterloo would have been a piece of cake. But now it means Home - Portsmouth - Waterloo - tubes to St. Pancras - Brussels - Amsterdam

Whereas I could just get in the car, drive to Dover, get a boat, drive to Amsterdam.

I'm all for this public transport but they don't make it easy. Plus, I'm up for a bit of a road trip.

[nw28840]

Road trip all the way....It's quite an easy run.

Hotel car park definitely the one to use.

Check out the Heineken Factory tour and the Anne Frank house maybe

Casino in the centre of Amsterdam is a nice way to spend a couplem of hours, bring your passport to get in. Check out the Paradiso round the corner if you are into your bands and there is a comedy club almost opposite the Casino (well at least there used to be when i lived over there...while back though !).

Have a great trip, watch out for speed cameras !

[Mark.]

Top Tips Nick thanks

I like the sound of the lager tour!